If%20You%20Were%20Coming%20in%20the%20Fall%20By:%20Emily%20Dickinson

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If You Were Coming in the FallBy Emily Dickinson

• Originally Published in Poems edited by Mabel
  Loomis Todd and T. W. Higginson in 1890

Analyzed By Sydney Holcomb and Nina Cao
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Thesis

• There are many literary terms used in Emily
  Dickinsons poem, making it an excellent choice
  to keep in the Glencoe 10th Grade Literature
  book.

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Rhythm and Rhyme Scheme

• Dickinsons poem has an ABCB rhyme scheme.
• The poem has alternating lines of iambic
  octameter and iambic tetrameter.
• If you were coming in the fall, (A) (8)
• Id brush the summer by, (B) (6)
• With half a smile and half a spurn, (C) (8)
• As housewives do a fly. (B) (6)

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Several Types of Organization

• This poem has five stanzas of quatrain.
• If you were coming in the fall, (line 1)
• Id brush the summer by, (line 2)
• With half a smile and half a spurn, (line 3)
• As housewives do a fly. (line 4)
• Dickinsons poem is also Lyric Poetry.

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Tone

• The tone is informal in that Dickinson uses both
  contractions and the word you.
• If you were coming in the fall, (line 1)
• Id brush the summer by, (line 2)

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Parallelism

• The word If starts each of the first four
  stanzas displaying parallelism.
• If you were coming in the fall (line 1)
• If I could see you in a year (line 5)
• If only centuries delayed (line 9)
• If certain, when this life was out (line 13)

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Allusion

• This poem makes an interesting allusion to the
  former name for Tasmania, originally Van Diemens
  land.
• Tasmania was originally named for the governor
  who sent the explorer that discovered the land.
• Subtracting till my fingers dropped, (line 11)
• Into Van Diemens Land. (line 12)

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Metaphor

• A metaphor is used to compare two unlike things
  like months and balls of yarn.
• Id wind the months in balls, (line 6)
• And put them each in separate drawers, (line 7)
• She states shed wind the months to compact
  them.
• Shed put them each in separate drawers to keep
  yarn from tangling or to keep months from running
  together.

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Simile

• The author uses a figurative language called
  similes.
• As housewives do a fly (line 4)
• Dickinson compares herself to a housewife.
• If certain, when this life was out, (line 13)
• That yours and mine should be, (line 14)
• Id toss it yonder like a rind, (line 15)
• She compares her life to a rind stating shed
  toss it away like trash.

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Symbolism

• Symbolism is used to give deeper meaning.
• But now, all ignorant of length, (line 17)
• Of times uncertain wing, (line 18)
• It goads me, like the goblin bee, (line 19)
• That will not state its sting. (line 20)
• The goblin bees sting symbolizes the arrival or
  meeting of Dickinson and her lover.

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Mood

• The mood is set as desperate, lonely and love.
• She is willing to throw any amount of time away
  to see her lover making her desperate as shown in
  the following lines
• If certain, when this life was out, (line 13)
• That yours and mine should be, (line 14)
• Id toss it yonder like a rind, (line 15)
• She only yearns for her lost lover, signifying
  loneliness.
• Dickinson truly cares and longs for the person in
  her poem indicating the mood of love.

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Imagery

• Dickinsons uses imagery to appeal to her
  readers senses.
• Id brush the summer by, (line 2)
• With half a smile and half a spurn, (line 3)
• As housewives do a fly. (line 4)
• The image of a housewife swatting at a fly comes
  to mind.
• If only centuries delayed, (line 9)
• Id count them on my hand, (line 10)
• A person with their fingers up pressing each down
  until a closed fist faces them appeals to your
  sight.

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Conclusion
Emily Dickinsons poetic work is a necessity to
the curriculum in the 2012 edition of Glencoe
10th Grade Textbook because it contains the
following essential literary terms

• Allusion
• Imagery
• Metaphor
• Mood
• Parallelism

• Rhythm
• Rhyme Scheme
• Similes
• Symbolism
• Tone